After Review, Boston Priest Reinstated

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, February 12, 2003

A priest who was removed after allegations surfaced that he had raped a boy in the 1960s was reinstated Thursday after Boston Archdiocese officials said they couldn't substantiate the claim.

The Rev. Edward McDonagh will be allowed to resume his work at St. Ann's parish starting Friday, an archdiocese spokesman said.

McDonagh was removed from the parish in West Bridgewater in May, two months after the archdiocese received a letter from a woman claiming that her brother, a prostitute who died of AIDS, told her 20 years ago that McDonagh had raped him in the early 1960s.

"I am in a spirit of prayerful thanksgiving to God, that through the investigation by the archdiocese, it has been determined that the allegation was not credible, and that I have been returned to Saint Ann's," McDonagh said in a prepared statement.

The Rev. Christopher Coyne, an archdiocese spokesman, said no other allegations were made against McDonagh during the nine months since his name was made public.

Coyne said the archdiocese investigation included a review of the priest's ministry record and interviews with "numerous" people, including the accuser.

"The archdiocese, after its investigation, has determined that the allegation is unsubstantiated," he said.

Sister Emily Pugh, the former director of religious education at St. Ann's, said parishioners held a prayer vigil every Sunday night since McDonagh was suspended.

"It is an answer to a prayer," she said.

Altogether 27 priests have been suspended from active duty in the Boston Archdiocese since the current church sexual abuse scandal broke in January 2002, Coyne said.

The only other priest to be reinstated since then was Monsignor Michael Smith Foster, the archdiocese's top canon lawyer.

Last fall, the archdiocese suspended, then reinstated Foster twice in three months after a man said he had been sexually abused by Foster as a child. The archdiocese ultimately concluded that the allegations were not credible.